International aid groups are continuing to try to reach trapped civilians. On Saturday, Israel rejected a plea from the United Nations for a 72-hour ceasefire to allow aid to be distributed. The UN food agency was then forced to cancel an aid convoy carrying medicines, flour, canned meat and vegetable oil to southern Lebanon because it did not have Israeli authorization. Mercycorps spokesperson Cassandra Nelson warned Southern Lebanon could face a public health epidemic.

• Cassandra Nelson: “We’ve already seen in some of these areas outbreak of diarrhoea in small children and we are very concerned about escalating health crisis from water borne illnesses, things can result in hepatitis, and different kind of diseases that can really effect the most vulnerable of the population, children, nursing mothers and the elderly.”